
The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ei ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Tokyo Imperial Palace, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.

as Genji

as Ine

as Itoman

as Furukawa

as Masuya

as Toramatsu

as Oko

as Kinzo

as Oyoshi

as Magoshichi

as Yoshino

as Nui

as Roku

as Nakazawa

as Koide

as Matakichi

as Hanjiro

as Sakunojo

as Densuke

as Yamikumo-dayu

as Omatsu

as Gon

as Ijuin

as Jyosyuya